Charles Smith III's Downfall
by ShvanE
Summary: Charlie's is a spoiled brat from district 1. He is use to getting everything he wants but one day his whole world falls apart when his fathers blooming business goes bank corrupt. This story is written by 5 diffrent authors as a school project so enjoy! :)


"Son! Do me a favor, bring me some wine from our wine cellar" says my dad. I went down I grabbed the best wine I could find.

"Here you go dad" I answer.

"By the way dad, I want the brand-new clothes the collection is called Couture, everyone is wearing them in the capital 1, can you get the whole collection from that brand?" I asked.

Fancy clothes are something I always wear, so does my dad and mother. I'm the only child in the family and I'm 18 years old so I get all the attention and I get everything I point at.

The sun rose up, it's summer. When it's sunny, I get in a good mood and when I hear the birds chirping outside our mansion it gets even better. We have a lot of planted trees around our mansion that have grown very high over the years and every spring and summer mocking jays fly over our yard and land on the trees and whistle all day long and it's so calming. Sometimes I make different sounds with my mouth just to make them whistle. The birds responded with the same whistle I did outside on my balcony and the sound lasted for five minutes, this is what I usually do when I'm bored or I jump in our big pool.

Lying down on my comfortable king-sized bed while the air conditioner was on, cold wind passing by me and as I stretched out my fingers, I could feel how cold the other side of the bed is. When the dinner bell is ringing, I quickly swing my legs off the bed and put on my white slippers. So, in our big mansion, my room is almost at the end of our house so I have to walk for about 5 minutes to get to the kitchen table where my mom and dad are waiting for me to eat dinner, I usually call this for "rich kid problems" just because of the long walk.

"So how was your day dad?'' I mutter while eating some beef.

"It was good but very stressful, it's not easy when you got such a big company with many employees" my dad says.

I'm very thankful for this life I have and very thankful for my mom and dad. So, we live in a big mansion that has everything I can dream about, well, thanks to my dad. My dad owns a 50-million-dollar company where it manufactures iron and transports it worldwide. He works a lot and when he gets home you can hear him sigh all the time. As I leave the dinner table, I start thinking about who I appreciate more, my mom or dad. It's because I look up to my dad, he is a hard-working man and very successful because of that I always had food on the table and have many luxury things. My mom on the other side stays at home and makes food sometimes, goes to the gym and goes shopping. Appreciating my father more than my mother feels wrong but I can't change my feelings.

As I walk towards our limousine my dad asked me "Are you sure you want to do this"?

"Yes, dad, this is what I want to be doing, I have done this since I was little, throwing spears at targets is my passion," I answer.

Sometimes I rather train and throw spears rather than going to school. So, our private chauffeur is driving us to pick up some new spears that my dad made in his Iron company with a new design and they are much lighter. We have spears at home but they are too old and heavy. We picked up our spears and head back to our mansion. Traveling by stretch limousine may seem a bit for people going out to special events but we always use it wherever we go.

As we slowly approach our gate it opens up and we drive through, I open the car door and grab my spears and run to my room to change to my training clothes. As I run out of my room with excitement my heart is pounding fast because I haven't trained with spears for a long time now and even better, we got brand new spears now. I meet up with my dad in our big yard and we are going to train together because he's good at this and he is the only one who has been training me. I pick up my spear with a proper grip and stance toward my target, I bring the spear back rotating my hips slightly backward while I keep my lead foot firmly on the ground. I bring my throwing arm which is the right one forward and upward in a slight arch, twist my shoulder forward and pivoting my right leg and I throw my spear right on the target and it hits the middle.

"YES!" I shout.

"High five! Now, make the same throw from a long distance and use a bit more force'' says my dad.

As I'm being prepared to throw my second spear, I put myself in the same position and I threw it. Snap…. my shoulder went out of its position. As the spear kept flying towards the target, you can hear it slicing through the wind I went down on the floor screaming painfully because of my shoulder. My dad grabbed my other arm and lifted me up. My shoulder is damaged pretty bad, I can't throw spears, for now on, well I think It's a reason to go to school and study.

My private chauffeur drops me off outside my private school and in front of the building, I see my 2 best friends, Josh and Alex. Immediately we start talking about the annual hunting trip we planned on going to in one month.

"Did you tell your dad yet about our trip"? Asks Josh.

"No, not yet didn't have the time to talk with him about it I answered".

The school bell rings and our lectures are over, I get picked up by my chauffeur and we start driving home.

"Dad? Where is dad?" I ask my Mom.

"Oh, honey... dad has to work over today but he will get home before midnight'', my mom answers sadly.

As I rest in my room, I can hear the car door closing, it has to be my dad! I get up quickly I run down the stairs and I see my dad and immediately ask him,

"Dad''! Can I go to my annual hunting trip with Josh and Alex?" I asked.

"No!" My dad answers aggressively.

Did my dad just say no to me? I've never heard those words utter my dad's mouth.

"What do you mean no?"

"I said no cause some things have gone wrong the family business, my dad says."

"Gone wrong? I almost shout and my voice cracks. How wrong? So wrong that I cannot even go to my annual hunting trip with Josh and Alex?"

"Sorry to say son but you probably have to get a lot more restricted with our money. We lost so much money and the stocks in our company are just getting lower and lower as we speak."

I just walk away as I feel my heart pounding, this is not right. How am I supposed to keep up if I can't throw money however I feel like it?

The red curtains and the room is getting smaller and smaller as I leave the living room and I feel fuming. My head is spinning as I go up to my loft on the top floor in our mansion. I walked into my room and I see a lady that I've never seen before is going through my closet and picking up my favorite silk shirts and throwing them in a box like they have no worth whatsoever. What the hell? I poke her sweaty shoulder as she doesn't seem to see me.

"Sorry sir, your dad told me to do this"

"You don't touch my clothes if I don't say so, leave! I shout"

I turn my heel around and go straight to the living room.

"What is that lady doing inside of my closet? I ask angrily."

"She is cleaning out your clothes that have a worth, you have too many clothes that just lay around in there, my dad says shocked that I've gotten so annoyed about it."

"It's not like you don't have any other clothes to wear, right?" My dad says

nonchalantly.

I walk away again, getting ready for the party a friend of mine is throwing. Or really he is not a friend of mine more of a friend's friend that likes to show off his money. But he throws wild parties so that is where I am headed. I need to let off my steam and forget about this feeling that I have going on right now. I head to my room and get dressed with one of the shirts that I managed to hide from the lady that was cleaning out my closet. I already feel poor I think to myself. This is insanity. As I get closer to the door with the big gold door knocker I hear the music pound. The music goes through my bloodstream. Josh and Alex greet me with a handshake, these guys are super proper and are well dressed as per usual. Isn't crazy how important appearance is? Imagine if they knew what was going on behind our doors at home. I can only imagine how my worth is going to sink in their eyes when they find out. I hope they don't though. It feels like we are going to be bankrupt in less than a week. I should stop thinking about this right now, and just let loose.

The party is wild, everyone is there and we drink. Oh, we drink so much that my head is spinning after one hour already. The only thing I feel like right now as Fitsgerald said: "First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you." I don't think alcohol has ever made me feel this way before. Josh and Alex are also stupid wasted. It was a whole lot of dancing as well. The host of a party had hired showgirls and it was fun to see all the colors and the dazzle.

I wake up in a green couch with Alex's feet resting too close to my head so I lift his feet and move my body under his legs and I rise and almost fall again. Dizzy as never before. Josh sits on the chair and he is covering his eyes with his hand.

"What are you doing I ask laughing"

"What does it look like, he replies angrily."

"Chill, it was just a question"

He looks at me and he almost feels a little judgemental.

"What? I say a little too cocky, but if he asks about my attitude I will blame it on the alcohol."

"You seem a little off, he says."

"I'm okay just drunk' I reply and get a little scared." It feels like he knows that I am poor now.

"No, there is something else. I can feel it. You almost seem a bit scared. What are you hiding?" He looks at me all suspicious. I kinda feel attacked. My brain tells me to calm down but my gut says, kill him.

I see black as I start to punch him. I hit him hard but Josh is also strong so I get a lot of punches back. He lays on the floor and the music stops and I feel like everyone is watching but I don't mind them really. I continue on and Josh screams stop. He wants to rise but I smash his head on the floor. I feel like this is going overboard but I cannot stop. I want to but I can't. I kept on going until Alex had woken up and pushes me on the ground. I feel like the alcohol has reached my head so I don't even bother getting up.

"What the hell man? Alex says all surprised."

"He knows my secret! I yell"

"What secret? He asks"

"I am poor now, my dad has lost everything. We are poor Alex POOR. I yell"

Josh wakes up and Alex helps him.

I look around and there is everybody from the upper-class staring at me while I just yelled out that I am poor. I am regretting it so bad. I need to leave this party right now.

During the last week, things escalated pretty quickly, our house is getting emptier and emptier however some things stayed the same though. My dad is constantly behind me trying to get me back to school but I refuse of course. The only time I lay eyes on my mom I can see that she has been crying and father stopped shaving daily as he use to before, we barely talk anymore I just join in for dinner and head out as soon as I can. I go to the edge of town where I am sure no one recognizes me, I have been here before a couple of years ago when we followed Josh's elder brother out to get some drugs it was pretty scary at the time and we never followed him back. I remember the corner because it is a shady area, but I find what I am here for and I am heading home and lock myself inside my room.

I kept to myself for the whole week and skipped dinner a few times already, however one day my mother enters the room after I forgot to lock it the night before and she wakes me out with a loud cry.

"So this is what you have been doing?!" She says barely audible.

My head is all mushy and I live it as a dream, where I do not give a damn. She may be crying but I am not concerned at all, I do not give her any attention until she leaves the room crying after my father. Then I wake up from my tiny trance and react.

"Dad is gonna be furious!" I shout to myself as I jump out of my bed.

My only instinct is to escape, I grab some clothes, and all the stuff on the table mother just saw and put them inside my black backpack. Before I leave the room I realize I forgot something, and I turn around and push my arm under the mattress where I have a stack of cash rolled in a rubber band and leave the house through the window. As I hurt my ankle.

"Shit, fuck, fuck this life, fuck all of you!" I yell out.

While leaving the garden I limp past some garden gnomes and angry as I am I could not resist to kick them all down, taking out all my anger.

I knew this day would come but I did not predict that it would be in such a rush, I was about to leave them any way they were destined to fall and would have brought me down with them. Perhaps it was better like this, I just wish I would have left before getting caught. Mother is already sad enough she did not need this. Anyways it is done now! I have to find a shelter for the night and my road ahead is still far from where I am heading. There is an old abandoned cabin that was brought up by father together with some land many years ago and was left there because it would have unnecessary spending removing it. I just hope it still in okay shape...

Luckily it is still whole, expect that a tree had fallen on it crashing in a bit of the roof. I headed to the front of the cabin and realize that the lock has been smashed in. I slowly open the door and it makes a loud creaking sound, no one seems to be inside. The cabin is small, it is just a room with a sofa standing in the middle, I can see that some stuff got taken but nothing I care about and I throw myself to the sofa and pass out.

A couple of days passed and I come into a habit of heading to the city every evening and come home late at night. With the downfall of my life, I have now lost all my joy and motivation for life. The only joy I feel is when I am wasted, I felt something at least, and people in this neighborhood did not know who I was so I could at least melt in, my wealth here did not matter whatever I had left I could use up here. The things are cheaper in this part of the district, each night I forget for the moment and every morning I wake up in the same nightmare.

The alcohol is out this morning so I have nothing to kill this headache with. It is still early the sun has not completely gone up and all I can see is thanks to the sunshine beams. My eyes get set on something shiny in the corner of the room. I reach and find out it is a pipe with still something inside, I inhaled the smoke and the buzz in my head quiets down a bit. The cabin is messier than when I first arrived and the window is now broken after I smashed the bottle into it for being empty. The only positive thing is that the drug is now working and my mind is drifting away slowly.

My life turned upside down in months, I reached rock bottom and I don't know what to do anymore, maybe I should just end it all. The recent months are being replayed in my head when my father first told me about our companies corruption, the fight with Josh, our finance cut-offs that lead my life to this mess. I live like a bum, in an abandoned cabin in the middle of nowhere. How did it end up like this? I do not deserve this, I am sure I could have handled the business better than father. It is all his fault! I should have done something about it, perhaps, I still can.

I can gain back the honor to my family and I will be able to go back to my old life, and I think I know how I am able to do that. After that everything goes dark and I don't remember anything more.

The birds woke me up early in the morning. It was inevitable that I would wake up with a headache after last night, I couldn't get any sleep. I still can't get the thought out of my head that I've reached rock bottom. I finally get out of my bed and step outside the cabin for some fresh air. I sat down at the porch, thinking for myself how can I make up for this.

Hours go by thinking for myself. I finally came up with what I can do to win back the high status for me and my family used to have, volunteer in The Hunger Games. But, in the state that I am right now, I have no chance.

I'll have to train very hard for this, I HAVE TO regain my honor.

Thinking about my decision, I do have a good chance of winning this. The only way I have a chance to win the games, I'll have to use the skills that I have acquired using spears. After all, I have been taught how to handle spears my entire life. Since I no longer can afford to buy real, metal spears, I'll have to find some other way to train. Since I was at the summer cabin, there were a lot of trees around, so I began to make my own spears out of branches I found. I gathered some sticks, but I didn't have anything to sharpen them with. Maybe I can use something from the cabin? I head towards the cabin and put down the branches at the porch and head inside. The only thing that I had hope in finding was a knife in the kitchen, but the only knives I could find were butter knives. However, I did find glass jars in one of the cupboards. I took one of the jars and threw it outside. I wrapped my hand with the hoodie that I was wearing and began to sharpen the wooden branches with the shards of glass. It took some time to make good ones, the first ones wouldn't have been able to pierce a balloon. But after some time and practice, the spears got pretty decent. Sharp enough to pierce another contender's flesh. I used the remaining glass jars I found in the cabin as practice targets. I picked up the first spear, charged up the throw and threw the spear. I missed, too high. I was used to throwing heavy metal spears, not light wooden ones. The spear landed almost 15 meters away from the target, beyond my sight in the woods. I got mad, so I had no motivation to go looking for the spear at the moment. I thought it was better to go searching for it later.

Since I was living at the summer cabin and didn't have a butler making any food for me, I had to make my own food. I realized the first day upon arriving to the summer cabin that I would find it difficult to make my own food. The only thing that I had a chance of eating was animals. I grabbed one of my spears and headed out in the forest looking for food and my lost spear. But nothing could prepare me for this...

I went searching for the spear, and I eventually found it in a bush. As I picked up the spear from the bush, I heard leaves move around. I looked over my right shoulder and to my amaze, there it was. The biggest wild boar I've seen. It had horns so big you could have thought it was the devil. It looked straight in my eyes and started to charge. I took some steps backward. Out of nowhere, the boar started charging towards me. I gripped my spear, took a step back, and threw the spear as hard as I could. Just as the boar jumped towards my stomach, the spear landed right between his eyes. The boar fell to the ground. I didn't know that I had such strength within me to do such a thing. It was then that I realized that, as long as I practice for the games, I can win back my lost honor.

I was born to do this. The more I trained the better I got at spear throwing. After some practice, I even managed to pierce a tree with my spear. Imagine what I could do with real spears.

The only thing I had in my head was the games. I started getting a daily routine together to maximize my chances of winning the game. I began the day by jogging for 1 hour. After all, I was in a very bad shape because of my recent lifestyle. Later on during the day, I exercised by lifting weights. The rest of the day consisted of making and throwing spears. I really started getting good at making spears. I would have probably been able to sell them at one of my father's old shops. I wanted to focus for the most part on spear throwing and making since I thought that was my only chance of winning the game.

One day, as I was doing my daily morning jog, I heard a loud noise. It was time. The Hunger Games was about to start. My heart started beating out of my chest. I didn't know if I was excited or scared. I had to think quickly and get to The Reaping in time. This is it. This is the moment I have been training for such a long time. This was my only chance in recovering mine and my family's honor.

With my heart beating louder and louder, I sprint back to my cabin to collect the things needed for the games. Doubt about my ability to win the games is sneaking up in the back of my mind, what if I have not trained enough for the games? Even with all the training, I've been doing, what if the drugs have done too much damage to my body making me lose in the first few minutes into the game? I try to ignore all of these thoughts as I am done with packing my backpack, knowing that if I let my feelings take control over me I have absolutely no chance of surviving the games.

As I am leaving to get to the games, I turn around and take one last look at the cabin, the only thing remaining of my family's wealth and properties. After all these years, the windswept wood and missing panels on the roof may not be the best looking cabin out there, but it has kept me somewhat warm for quite some time now. I turn back around and begin with my journey to get to the reaping.

As I am walking, the only thing going through my mind is "I need to regain my honor, I have to". Trying to build up my courage, I keep telling myself I am Charles Smith III, I come from a powerful and wealthy family and I am NOT afraid of the games. Hell, I used to love watching the games, watching all the candidates killing each other and seeing them suffer, always was entertaining to me. But not once would I ever have thought that I would also need to participate in it. To be fully honest with myself, I am scared. Scared of losing, scared that my family never will recover from this and scared about what will happen to them if I lose the games.

During my training, all I had in mind was the game. But now, with the games starting all of these thoughts start to pile up. Being lost in my thoughts, I did not notice that I had arrived in the area where the reaping are being held.

I walk through the crowd that has gathered around the reaping area in front of the arena. A man from the capitol is standing in the middle with two large bowls sitting on a table. I hear people nearby whispering about how all the girls are in the left bowl and all the boys are in the right. I suddenly remember my father telling me in the past about how the selecting for the games work. I also remembered that this district is the last one to select participants. The person standing in the middle asks for everyone to be silent because the selection is starting. I feel my heart started to beat faster as I am listening to which are the ones who are going to be in the games.

As soon as the names of the two participants are being called, I jump up and shout

"I volunteer!"

The man from the capitol looks at me, clearly surprised that anyone would volunteer to join the games. But he just shrugs his shoulders and says, "Well if you want to volunteer, who am I to say that you can't do it."

The selection ends and the people who are not in the games are beginning to leave the arena, probably to watch it in their homes. Looking around me, I see the other participants from the other districts are already here. As I am making my way to the arena a girl suddenly shows up at my side. I look at her, wondering who it is then I realize it is the girl who was selected from my district.

"What do you want?", I ask her curiously.

"You're Charles Smith, right? The guy whose family lost all of their money and then just left them?" she asks me quickly.

"Yeah, that's me,'' I reply to her, cursing under my breath that everyone seems to know about what happened to my family. Then again, we were quite a well known family, so of course, all the other districts would know what happened.

"So, I know I'm probably being too forward with you, considering we literally just met each other, but would you mind telling me why the hell you volunteered to the games?" she asks me, looking at me like I am a crazy person. Suddenly I start to feel anger, who is this girl judging me for what I am doing. I do not answer her, instead, I just glare at her while she continues speaking to me.

"Well I guess you have a reason, but you didn't even get picked to do it. And also, you're a rich guy, coming from a wealthy family. I know what happened to your family, all of the districts do. It's kind of funny, we all thought the almighty Smith family would have a backup plan if something like this happened. But still, why would you do it?" she says and looks at me, probably expecting an answer.

I just stand there, stunned and I can't speak back to her for a few moments. I then feel the anger coming back and I say to the girl.

"Well, first of all, you don't know shit about my family. And second of all, why I am volunteering is none of your damn business. But if you really have to know, I'm doing this to help my family because yes, we used to be rich and no, we didn't have a backup plan because my father should know how to run a freaking business by now!" I yell back at the girl, not caring that she flinches at my angry outburst.

The girl remains silent by my side, which I take that our conversation is over. I take advantage of this and start observing the area within the arena.

A woman calling out to us stops me from looking around the place. She tells us about the rules of the games and what we should do in order to have a chance at winning. I try to listen to her, but I lose interest in hearing what she is saying after about two seconds. Suddenly everyone is moving and I have to snap back into reality after being lost in my own thoughts about how I am going to make sure I win this. We are being escorted out to the field, one by one we are getting up on the pedestals. My hands are starting to feel sweaty, the adrenaline is going through my body.

The countdown has started and my senses are now on top but my body is shaking out of all the adrenaline pumping through my veins. A loud explosion is heard and people are running towards the middle of the pedestals for the weapons in the middle. As I am one of the biggest tributes I took my chances to grab one of the spears from the barrels. As I run towards the middle another tribute trips me over and we fight for a few moments before he gets knocked out by the girl from district 1 I earlier spoke to. She gives me a quick smile and runs out of the circle with what seems to be a backpack. I look towards the weaponry and I see that my chances are close to zero surviving since everyone there already has a weapon so I decided to run after my savior.

She is faster than she seems but I will not lose her is the only thing I'm thinking off. I start shouting. "Hey, wait up!" But she does not stop.

She eventually slows down to catch her breath and I do too. I start looking around while trying to get some air down my lungs, we are in what seems to be an old war zone. Surrounded by ruins and old buildings shot down by tanks or bombs, everything around me seems to be old and untouched. It reminds me of the pictures they showed a couple of years ago on tv of district 13's aftermath. After a few moments, I thank her for helping me out back there and she answers with a simple "no problem" while searching through her backpack. She found some ropes, a knife, and items to set traps. She stands up and walks away but I ask her to stop which she did.

"I think it's better if we stick together, higher our chances to survive," I told her.

"Why should I stay with you? To save your sorry ass again?"

"No, you won't have to do it again."

"Ha, you seem very sure for almost just getting killed." she said and keep walking.

"I am good with spears!" I shouted out of panic and it seemed to help. She turned around and said, "how good?".

"I can hit moving targets without problems and I have been preparing for the games for a while now with wooden spears".

A moment passes and she tells me "Ok, call me Betty" and starts walking again as I follow. We walk through the ruins without running into someone, eventually, we find a park after what seemed to be hours.

''It's getting dark outside, we should find shelter in the park''. Betty agrees, so we go searching for some type of shelter. I am on the constant lookout for other tributes that could be lurking around, waiting to take our lives. I didn't want to sleep in the houses around the park, since other tributes may already have taken those spots. Upon walking around the park, we stumble upon a big tree in the middle of the park. We build some type of hut right next to the roots of the tree. We lay down next to each other and surround ourselves with leaves and branches to make ourselves more hidden from others. Just as I close my eyes, I hear some 15 loud noises one after each other. I looked up at the sky and understood what it meant. I saw the faces of the tributes that had fallen. I looked at Betty and said:

"We actually have a good chance in winning''. Betty smiles and says:

"Indeed, we sure have a good chance''. And we both close our eyes and fall asleep.

In the morning I and Betty wake up early, we don't want to oversleep it may cause us our death if someone finds us. It's cold, so cold. So cold that I almost can't feel my legs and I start shaking, my cold tolerance is problematic so Betty decided to hug me and keep me warm.

"We have to keep going, hiding between two bushes is not a good idea," says Betty.

"I agree, hiding forever is not going to lead us to victory and survive" I answer.

So I started looking for branches and I grabbed the knife from Betty's backpack and I slowly started making my own spears, it's important that I do it slowly because while making my spears they can break easily on the top where it's going to be pointy. My spears are now ready, ready to face any threat for the remaining tributes. We keep our pace, we walk slowly. the clouds are starting to break. As we walk Betty stops.

"Look at these dead bodies'' She says.

We noticed that there might not be many tributes left after seeing so many dead bodies. So we decided to make some traps around us, just in case we get tired and don't have the energy to fight.

How are we supposed to know who many are still alive? I think to myself, not wanting to ask Betty to sound stupid. We relax a bit because of the exhaustion and I feel almost as my body is giving up but I won't give up. I won't be like my dad and just give up on everything and lose my value. I need to win this even if it means I have to stabb Betty in the back.

As we approach the center of the arena I spot the last couple. It's district 11. I notice it from their ugly clothes. They look horrendous.

"We should attack them Betty", I whisper silently.

"I agree, they are not looking you should throw a spear at the guy, he isn't looking." She says almost sounding a little excited. She is crazier than I thought.

As I rise up and throw my spear and hit the right shoulder of the guy Betty charges upon the female tribute so I run-up to the guy and push him over he tries to turn around but due to the spear in his shoulder he has difficulties even moving so I grab on a stone and smashed in his head with it. Just as Betty is done killing the girl with her tiny little knife. We cheer but we are also very aware that we now have to kill each other. I look her in the eyes and it's almost like her eyes are talking to me and saying "run". I start running but fall on a stone, this can't be my death I think to myself. How embarrassing is this, not only getting killed by another tribute but a female tribute. Betty has her crazy eyes as she stabs me multiple times. As I slowly die the only thing that goes through my mind is that Betty probably heard my thoughts about me stabbing her and took the chance while she had it. I don't blame her.


End file.
